Among my children, 2 eldest "clicked" with reading within a month of 6th birthday. What I mean is that they could sort of build up a rhythm with simple familiar words & smoothy read short sentences; they sounded like readers. The 3rd one has summer birthday so clicked a few months sooner (had most of yr1 behind him before he was 6).

4th child is slower; 6th birthday was 2 months ago & he really hasn't clicked yet, I don't think he will for another 4-8 months.

As far as I am concerned, DC are all in the normal range, DC3 was on the early side, actually. I help out in class & some won't click with reading before yr3/8yo I find.

P1 is akin to a mix of Reception/Y1 I believe - first year of schooling, although the children are nearer to Y1 in age (5 1/2 -6 1/2?)?

In Reception, children at this stage of the year could be anywhere from not reading at all to reading fluently and with understanding. The bulk of them I think will be able to read simple decodable words which can be sounded out with basic phonic knowledge. By this stage in Year 1 I think you would be looking for them starting to decode longer words using alternative phonic sounds (so knowing that g can say 'g' or 'j') and reading a bit more fluently.

I read with yr1 kids (5-6) and as others say it varies massively. There is one child who cannot read (joined school after Xmas in yr1 - but is having phonics lessons with reception) and others are very confident.

When DS was in yr1 (now yr4) he was doing pretty well (ORT stage 9 IIRC) and DD is currently in yr1 and reading fluently (Black Beauty, Heidi, Charlotte's Web level).

You can get a wide range of reading ability in P1 (potential age range of 4.5 to nearly 6 --in practice 5.7--). Ds wasn't developmentally ready to read until he was 6.5 (2/3 of the way through P2), which the school said was normal for some kids: spent all of P1 learning books off by heart and even though the school worked hard with him he didn't "get" blending until near the end of P2.

School was relaxed about it - as evidenced by fact he eventually went back into top reading group and now (in secondary) is doing really well in English.

Comparing at this age is pointless as long as you know the child is trying and the school is working with him/her - and, most importantly, that they enjoy books, whatever the level.

DD does read for pleasure but has very firm ideas about what she wants to read

She adores books about animals (hence Black Beauty) and stories that she can relate to (ie Heidi as its about a young girl).

However her other books of choice are Captain Underpants! She never really got into Rainbow Magic Fairies <<phew>> although she does love fluffy puppy/kitten stories.

OTOH she loathes non fiction (unless it is historical).

When DS was in yr1 he was a pretty good reader (not as strong as DD) but never read anything for pleasure (to himself) apart from anything football related It was only towards the end of yr3 that he would pick up a book (fiction) to read to himself.

the little one is reading pretty well for her age I believe, she is on book band 6 at school, about 7-8ish level at home. can tackle lots of things if she can be bothered....

the older one is reading things like Worst Witch (involves quite a lot of looking up words though as huge vocabulary in it - if reading to herself she happily glosses over some of them as she can get the meaning without knowing the 'actual' meaning if that makes sense but if reading to me she often asks), Magic Molly and other Holly Webb stuff, mermaid and fairy stuff, anything animal related, Dick King Smith and others.

DS is in P1 and on stage 3 of the Biff and Chip books which he can read easily bar the odd word. He's a fairly reluctant reader but loves books and being read to. I think in terms of his class he's doing reasonably well. Early on he was put into a small group to work through phonics sounds etc. at a quicker pace. Like others have said it's difficult to compare against same age Y1 pupils who started phonics a year earlier in reception.